[FJX2000]

Hey there everyone! Been a minute since I've done a writeup on here since I spend most of my time now-a-days making videos for the YouTube channel. However I recently got a new Alpine headunit for Christmas and installed it and took photos along the way. Figured this was still the best place to share the install and hopefully it helps someone else out. But I have some questions too that hopefully others can answer. I was installing this on my 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser that came with the factory 9-speaker sound system and I wanted to keep functionality of everything I could, the steering wheel controls, the factory subwoofer and button, the AUX port, everything.

So I ordered my setup from Crutchfield and went with the following (links embedded):
Alpine iLX-W650
PAC RP4.2-TY11 Wiring Interface
Metra 95-8202 Dash Kit

I am by no means an audio expert but I can handle wiring since I do have some electrical experience. (Model railroading wiring mostly.) I went with this radio though since it had good reviews and seemed to do what I wanted. And though this specific wiring harness was more pricey it was advertised as being the one that retains factory steering wheel controls which was important, so I got it.

I went ahead and removed the OEM FJammer Radio to begin. My radio was working fine but the audio dial was starting to get glitchy and not work properly and not having Bluetooth for playing music from the phone was becoming a bummer. I was still rocking an iPod with the AUX cord!

I then modified the factory metal radio mounts to work with the new headunit. There are some little metal bumps in the way that I simply drilled out since those wouldn't allow the metal brackets to sit flush, but once I did that I could install them along with the Metra dash kit which fills in the sides of the headunit so there aren't any gaps on the dash. I reused the factory screw/bolts since they are better than the supplied ones which were only screws. Having bolt heads seems better.

You can see one of the little metal bumps I'm talking about. With the OEM radio they help align the radio properly but with the aftermarket one they keep it from sitting flush, so I drilled out the ones that were causing issues and left this one since it wasn't in the way.

Next I started wiring the wiring harness that came with the Alpine headunit to the PAC RP4.2-TY11 one. I began with the big 3, the Black (Ground), the Yellow (Battery), and Red (Accessory) wires. (If you're wiring in the MicroBypass don't do the black ground wire yet, see below.)

Then I attached all the various speaker wiring with:

• green(+) and green/black(-) for the rear left
• white(+) and white/black(-) for the front left
• gray(+) and gray/black(-) for the front right
• violet(+) and violet/black(-) for the rear right

I then wired in this little bypass called the MicroBypass, here is a link for it: MicroBypass Video Parking Brake Bypass Fits ALPINE ILX-W650 ILX-F309 ILX-F259 | eBay The Alpine headunit normally is wired into the parking brake so you have to be in park with the parking brake engaged to access certain features of the radio. That seemed like a hassle. Plus it's not liek this thing can play movies or anything, so I got this little guy off eBay and wired it in as per the instructions.

As you can see, I had to go back and rewire in my black ground wire so the MicroBypass could be attached. Then you just attach the Yellow/Blue wire and Blue/White wire from the MicroBypass to the corresponding wiring from the Alpine Headunit harness (the plug that goes into the headunit itself.)

The PAC wiring harness is designed for various Toyota/Lexus/Scion vehicles so it had 5 different Vehicle connector plugs, but I discovered you only need Plugs 3, 4, and 5 for the FJ Cruiser. At least for my 2008 that was the case, here those are plugged in.

I then had the various plugs from the harnesses attached to this Interface unit like so. Note how I plugged into the Non-amplified Audio Output, this is because the 2008 FJ doesn't have an OEM amp. Though I have the OEM subwoofer which has its own little amp, that doesn't count.

Then for the Alpine headunit, you have to move the programming pins on the interface so they are in this orientation. Only pin 1 will be down which is ON and the rest will be up which is OFF.

 

[FJX2000]

Then I hooked up the rest of the plugs like so onto the back of the Alpine Headunit. The wiring harness has a bundle of wires labelled "Steering wheel controls" and one wire has a plug that looks like an audio jack, that plugs into the spot that is labelled W. Remote on the Alpine. I also plugged in the microphone and ran it up the A-pillar so I could talk with bluetooth. and I attached the USB to a USB switch outlet plug that is specific for the Toyota. That way I can attach my phone with a USB cable and use Apple CarPlay. Then of course you plug in the wire from the antenna into the corresponding Radio Ant. wire from the back of the Alpine. You can see the SXM plug where if you wanted Sirius XM radio, you would have to purchase a separate module and antenna that would then connect there. I don't see myself listening to satellite radio that much so I didn't get it, not yet at least.

Here is my switch panel and you can see that USB plug, here is a link for it too: https://a.co/d/j7fnDmY

And though I do not have a backup camera, this headunit does have plugs for it. So I will hopefully get one within the next year. Yet in the wiring bundle that has the plugs for the cameras, there are some audio jacks that I hooked up and now the AUX jack still works for the iPod! However the radio is weird about this. If you press play on the iPod it will play the audio over anything else, even if you have the radio or bluetooth playing the AUX audio will play at the same time, and it doesn't use the subwoofer speaker. Weird.

The other thing that is weird and that I cannot figure out is why the subwoofer is so quiet. It is producing sound and the subwoofer switch does work but it is not NEARLY as loud as it was with the OEM FJammer radio. Any advice would be appreciated. I need to call Crutchfield and see what they say. I also had to reset the interface unit and mess around with the steering wheel controls but at last those controls do work properly and it has been great so far!

Here are some photos of the instructions that helped a lot.

Hope this helps anyone else out there andd if you can answer some of the questions I had above that would be great! Thanks!

 

[Gharddog03]

Looks good. Greats vids too. Thanks

 

[ZerosFJ]

Nice write up, thanks Hayden

 

[FatMatt]

I bought a cheaper Apple Carplay Head Unit from Crutchfield for my 07 with the same PAC unit. The wiring came with an OBD connector for the steering wheel controls. Did your install use this? I ended up not using it and going with the simple and relatively generic Toyota stereo connectors and lost SWC. I don't really need the SWC, but mostly didn't want to tie up the OBD port. I don't have the subwoofer, but I don't know if your wiring would be that much different.

 

[FJX2000]

I bought a cheaper Apple Carplay Head Unit from Crutchfield for my 07 with the same PAC unit. The wiring came with an OBD connector for the steering wheel controls. Did your install use this? I ended up not using it and going with the simple and relatively generic Toyota stereo connectors and lost SWC. I don't really need the SWC, but mostly didn't want to tie up the OBD port. I don't have the subwoofer, but I don't know if your wiring would be that much different.

It it has the same PAC wiring harness then as I showed in the instructions above there was a bundle of wires labelled Steering wheel controls that had a plug that plugged into the back of my new headunit and that gave me steering wheel controls.

I didn't use the OBD2 wiring either though the wiring did come with a plug to utilize it if I wanted. But I didn't see the need and also didn't want to block the OBD2 port.

 

[NewRider]

I just did the same install about a month ago (2010 TT). Very happy with it but it does seem that the colors are washed out when I use Apple Carplay. Have you noticed that? I may sub out the USB cable, but it does seem weird. I'm running the latest iOS on an iPhone 13 and I have read some mentions of this problem. Wondering if you've seen it.
I haven't hooked up the rear camera yet but I've run a cable to drivers side outside-facing panel by the floor where the camera wires are. I might try to tap into those at some point. Mic in on the steering column and seems to work quite well but I may move that to the A-pillar also.
Wiring in the parking brake was a real PITA and I eventually found that micro-bypass on ebay and that was an excellent purchase, made everything work easily and my OBD port remains open.

 

[FatMatt]

It it has the same PAC wiring harness then as I showed in the instructions above there was a bundle of wires labelled Steering wheel controls that had a plug that plugged into the back of my new headunit and that gave me steering wheel controls.

I didn't use the OBD2 wiring either though the wiring did come with a plug to utilize it if I wanted. But I didn't see the need and also didn't want to block the OBD2 port.

I was wondering where you got the SWC from the FJ to attach to the PAC cables.

 

[FatMatt]

I just did the same install about a month ago (2010 TT). Very happy with it but it does seem that the colors are washed out when I use Apple Carplay. Have you noticed that? I may sub out the USB cable, but it does seem weird. I'm running the latest iOS on an iPhone 13 and I have read some mentions of this problem. Wondering if you've seen it.
I haven't hooked up the rear camera yet but I've run a cable to drivers side outside-facing panel by the floor where the camera wires are. I might try to tap into those at some point. Mic in on the steering column and seems to work quite well but I may move that to the A-pillar also.
Wiring in the parking brake was a real PITA and I eventually found that micro-bypass on ebay and that was an excellent purchase, made everything work easily and my OBD port remains open.

I have a jensen head unit and the colors are pretty washed out on mine, but it was a cheap stereo.

 

[NewRider]

I was wondering where you got the SWC from the FJ to attach to the PAC cables.

I got mine via the Cruthfield wiring harness. There are three connectors from the FJ (not including the radio antenna). One of those contains the SWC wires. The cructhfield harness and RP4 box above make it work. I don’t know the individual wires in which connector carry the signal.

 

[crawyota]

I just had this h/u installed yesterday . I'm 50/50 on it so far. A few questions, so one of the reasons I bought this unit was for the swiping for the volume 《》 and tuning 《》since i dont have the steering wheel controls, and it doesn't seem to work , and then when I got in this morning the screen started on the camera screen , I don't have a back up cam so there is no reason it should be on (but when I got in this afternoon the screen worked fine) also had the Bluetooth. Got any ideas

 

[NewRider]

I just had this h/u installed yesterday . I'm 50/50 on it so far. A few questions, so one of the reasons I bought this unit was for the swiping for the volume 《》 and tuning 《》since i dont have the steering wheel controls, and it doesn't seem to work , and then when I got in this morning the screen started on the camera screen , I don't have a back up cam so there is no reason it should be on (but when I got in this afternoon the screen worked fine) also had the Bluetooth. Got any ideas

I've used the swipe up/down for volume and it mostly works but you need to make sure two fingers are doing it. Having said that, I do have steering wheel controls and use those more but I still do the two-finger swipe. I'll try the sideways swipe later this afternoon.

 

[crawyota]

I've used the swipe up/down for volume and it mostly works but you need to make sure two fingers are doing it. Having said that, I do have steering wheel controls and use those more but I still do the two-finger swipe. I'll try the sideways swipe later this afternoon.

Well that's my problem I didn't use 2 fingers

 

[fjlj]

I bought this same unit at a black friday sale. I haven't installed it yet. I pulled the unit that it currently in the FJ. Prior owner pulled the factory radio, 9 speaker with sub set up, and installed a cheap Pioneer single din unit, no bluetooth, no phone, not even HD radio.....to make matters worse, they cut off the four factory male plugs that come from the wiring harness and just pinched the Pioneer wires to the factory wires. I need the factory male plugs to connect to the PAC wiring adapter, or I guess I could just splice the factory wiring on to the PAC wiring adapter and then plug that into the Alpine h/u. Ideas, thoughts? There were a number or wrecking yards with lots of FJs along the San Diego border with Mexico, but most of them have been put out of business by large warehouse projects like Amazon. The FJ inventory has really been reduced.

 

[fjlj]

Do you have photos of the finished product? What did you have phone controls on your steering wheel? I don't have them on mine, only for radio adjustments. Where did you mount your mic? Any issues or thoughts of a better location? Did you resolve the subwoofer issue? Are you using an amp? I have a JL Audio 400/4 that I intend to install, along with some Hertz MLK 165.3 component speakers for the front doors and the dash. I will probably end up using the Kenwood Exelon 3 inch speakers for the rear pillars. Did you end up rigging the back up camera or a front facing camera? Thanks again for the writeup. Phil

 

[fjlj]

FJX2000 - Hayden

Any additional information? I don't instagram or facebook so the FJ Forum is my source for all things FJ, except for some youtube sites. Thanks Phil

 

[NewRider]

Do you have photos of the finished product? What did you have phone controls on your steering wheel? I don't have them on mine, only for radio adjustments. Where did you mount your mic? Any issues or thoughts of a better location? Did you resolve the subwoofer issue? Are you using an amp? I have a JL Audio 400/4 that I intend to install, along with some Hertz MLK 165.3 component speakers for the front doors and the dash. I will probably end up using the Kenwood Exelon 3 inch speakers for the rear pillars. Did you end up rigging the back up camera or a front facing camera? Thanks again for the writeup. Phil

I don't have phone controls on the steering wheel, just the volume, back and forward, and mode. I had the stock FJ radio. Using the gear from Crutchfield, it was really really straightforward. I spliced a bunch of wires according to the guide (all color-coded), and used the RP unit as the adaptor between the FJ connectors and the alpine. It all worked fine.
Subwoofer works fine.
I mounted the mic on the steering column - that seems to work well for using Siri for voice control and speaking with people. I'm not using an amp and don't think I need one for my setup.
I have not (yet) tried hooking up the rear view camera - I installed the cable but haven't tapped into the the wires yet. It's not a biggee for me, but I may try it.
Sorry, no pictures of the install.

 

[Chumley]

they cut off the four factory plugs

You could splice in the metra 71-1761 harness to get two of them back.